After eating, they took their coffee and went into the living room and watched the morning news on television.
Brad turned off the television as he checked his watch. It was 8:15 a.m., late enough for someone to be in the office. He grabbed the phone and dialed a number. A second later Tara reached in front of him and disconnected the call.
Her words were emphatic. “I’m not going. I thought we settled that last night.”
He cocked his head and looked at her, while suppressing a grin. “I was calling John Vincent’s attorney to see if I could get a location on Doreen Vincent and whatever other information he might have.”
She glanced at the floor. The heat of embarrassment spread across her face, but she quickly regained her composure. “As long as you weren’t making arrangements to send me away.”
He flashed her a wry grin. “I’d be afraid to even try.”
She made an effort to adopt a stern expression. “As long as you know where I stand on that issue. Now, I’m going to make some more coffee while you’re talking to Leo Gardner.”
Brad watched as she walked into the kitchen. The heat of desire settled low inside his body. Everything about her excited him more than he wanted to admit. He closed his eyes and tried to rid himself of the inappropriate feelings. It was with great difficulty that he resumed his task of contacting John Vincent’s attorney.
To Brad’s surprise, Leo Gardner was already in his office. He had assumed he would be talking to a secretary. At first Leo was reluctant to provide any information, but a very persuasive Brad Harrison convinced him that he wasn’t breaching any client-attorney confidentiality because the information was available through public records even though going that route was inconvenient.
He made quick notes as Leo Gardner answered his questions and provided him with what he wanted. As soon as he hung up, he turned to Tara to report on what he had found. “The majority of John Vincent’s estate went to his daughter, Doreen Vincent. In addition to Green Valley Construction, which was the major item in his will, Doreen inherited five hundred thousand dollars in stocks and bonds, a house in Seattle and specifically listed items of art and jewelry, in addition to the undisclosed contents of a safe-deposit box, which I assume was probably a lot of undeclared cash and hidden assets connected with his criminal activities. Whether she knew of his activities prior to his arrest and the trial is another unanswered question.
“To his nephew, Daniel Vincent, he left a car and a van plus fifty thousand dollars in stocks. Even though it’s not been tested in court, we know that Danny was fully aware of John’s criminal activities and was a participant in many of the jobs.” Brad saw the quick look of pain that darted through Tara’s eyes, a pain that he felt as surely as if it had been his own. She had been hurt by Danny on an emotional level and then had the reality dumped on her that the man she was once engaged to had been involved in the attempts on her life. He wanted so much to ease that pain and permanently erase the hurt from her memory.
Brad continued sharing the information gathered from Leo Gardner. “Then came the big question…where to find Doreen Vincent. All Leo knew was that she had been living in the house in Palm Beach that she inherited when her mother died five years ago and that she worked as a personal trainer and was considered a physical fitness guru. To the best of his knowledge the house she inherited from her father has been vacant from the time he went to prison. While the estate was in probate she stayed at a downtown hotel. She chose not to retain Leo as her attorney for her personal and business matters beyond the settling of her father’s estate. Since he no longer has any business association with her, he has no idea where she is or even if she stayed in Seattle rather than returning to Florida.”
“Where does that leave us?”
He drew in a deep breath, held it for several seconds, then expelled it with a sigh of frustration. “The same place we were before I talked to Leo. Other than confirming that Doreen, rather than Danny, inherited Green Valley Construction, we don’t know any more than we did.”
“We know Doreen was living in Palm Beach, Florida, at the time of John’s death, at least that’s where the attorney contacted her.” She paused a moment, her face scrunched up as if something was bothering her.
“Tara? Is something wrong?”
“It just occurred to me…don’t you think it’s odd that she didn’t bother to attend any of the trial proceedings? I never saw anyone in court during that entire time who resembled the picture of Doreen that always sat on John’s desk, or any of the other photos—”
Her eyes narrowed and a frown wrinkled across her forehead as she bit her lower lip. “There’s something…somewhere…a photo. I can’t quite place it…something I’ve seen.”
He stared at her. It was as if she was dragging little bits of her past to the forefront, one piece at a time as something triggered the memory. “Is it a picture of Doreen?”
“I think so. It’s something about her.” She shook her head. “I can’t seem to get it into focus.”
“Don’t force it. It’ll come to you. Go on with what you were saying…about Doreen not attending any of the trial proceedings.”
“I was saying that I never saw anyone at the trial who resembled the photos that I’d seen of her. I know John had maintained contact with her, so they weren’t estranged. I recall a couple of occasions when John mentioned family get-togethers that included Doreen and Danny. I even saw a couple of photos from one of those gatherings. They weren’t a close-knit family, but they did maintain contact on a fairly regular basis.”
Brad cocked his head, stared at her for a moment as he turned a thought over in his mind. He proceeded cautiously, not wanting to upset her with his line of questioning. “Do you recall seeing anyone who looked like Judy Lameroux at any time during the trial? Maybe with shorter hair? Dressed differently than you know her now?”
She pursed her lips as a slight frown wrinkled her forehead. She spoke hesitantly. “No…not that I recall. But having never seen her before we met in the bookstore, she wouldn’t have been anyone who caught my attention. Having seen pictures of Doreen, that would have been someone I would have noticed.”
“Well, at least we now know for sure that Doreen came from Palm Beach. We just don’t know where she is currently.”
“Doesn’t that give you a place to start a search of some sort? Maybe phone company records showing a new phone number or a forwarding address? Property records showing whether or not she still owns that house? If she doesn’t live there, then the property tax statements would have to be mailed to her somewhere. Wouldn’t that be a matter of public record for anyone wanting to go to the trouble to dig it out? And, unless the house is rented to someone else, there might be utility bills that are being sent to her at another address.”
He leaned forward and brushed a quick kiss across her lips, the brief touch sending a tingle of excitement through him. “You’re very good at this. Perhaps you’re in the wrong line of work. Have you ever considered being a detective?”
Her spontaneous laugh filled the room. “Me? Someone who has lived her entire life by the credo don’t take any chances being a detective? That’s quite a fanciful imagination you have.”
“Maybe that’s the way it was for you at one time, but that hardly describes your life now.” He pulled her into his arms, his manner very serious in spite of her obvious amusement. “You are a very exciting and intelligent woman with a great deal to contribute to a relationship. Don’t ever sell yourself short.”
The words had been heartfelt, but Brad stopped short of saying what was truly in his heart. It had been such a long time since he had opened his heart to anyone, he wasn’t sure how to proceed. Nothing had been clear-cut or straightforward from the moment he first laid eyes on her. Nothing had gone smoothly. It seemed that he had totally lost control of everything around him. It was a situation that was certainly foreign to him and his way of life.
He continued to hold her for a minute, then r
eluctantly released her from his embrace. “We have work to do. I can check a lot of that Palm Beach information on the computer.”
“Is it really that easy to get all kinds of personal information about someone just by sitting in your living room and punching stuff up on a computer? I know we gathered quite a bit of information while we were at Friday Harbor, but those were protected areas with passwords and things like that. What about the normal person with their home computer? Can they access all this information, too?”
“Yes. In my line of work a computer is a useful tool, but in the hands of unscrupulous people it can create untold problems such as identity theft. It’s a major problem around the world.”
“You mean that whoever is behind these events could have found me as soon as I moved? That my unlisted telephone number is readily accessible to anyone with a computer and the knowledge about how to find it?” She hesitated as another sharp barb of reality struck at her vulnerability. “That Danny probably knew where I was as soon as I moved?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what it means. I’m sure that’s how the three witnesses who were not under our protection were located. But the other two who had new identities and had been relocated, that’s another matter. That information had to come from an internal leak, and even within the Marshals Service that information is highly classified and hard to get at.”
Brad quickly accessed utility records for the address of Doreen’s Palm Beach house. A scowl crossed his forehead as he stared at the screen. “It appears that the house is rented. The utility bills are sent to the house, but in someone else’s name. It’s been that way for—” he clicked a couple of keys then read the new data “—almost five months.”
She leaned over his shoulder to see the information displayed on the computer screen. “What about the property taxes?”
“I’m checking that now.”
A couple of minutes later the results appeared on the screen. Tara stared at the address, then shook her head. “It’s an address in Palm Beach and the suite number suggests that it belongs to an office building. Do you have any way of checking an address to see what it belongs to?”
“Let’s see what we can find.” Brad spent several minutes trying to track down a source that would tell him who the address belonged to, but without any luck. He scowled at the screen. “I didn’t think it would be this difficult.”
“Is there someone in Palm Beach you could call who could find out and get back to you?”
“Hmm, there just might be someone I can call.” He reached for the phone and dialed. After two rings the call was answered.
“Steve, I need another favor.”
“You’re really going to owe me big time when you get finished with this. I assume you’re still involved in the same nonexistent case you’ve been working on.”
“Yes, it’s the same nonexistent case. I have a street address in Palm Beach, Florida. I need to know who or what it belongs to. Can you make an inquiry of the Palm Beach Police Department?”
Steve’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. “I don’t know how much longer I can do these things for you without giving my captain an explanation of what’s going on. He’s already suspicious of my insistence that the lab boys go over the Winthrope death with a fine-tooth comb. He didn’t press me, but I know he didn’t buy my explanation about why I didn’t believe it was an accident when that’s what the initial report said. And then there was the car license you had me run. He was curious about why a homicide detective was requesting an out-of-state vehicle check not connected with any of our current cases.”
“I’ll see if I can find another way. I don’t want you to get in trouble with your captain.”
“Give me the address. I’ll work something out and get back to you as soon as I can.”
“Thanks, Steve. I definitely owe you one.”
“You owe me a lot more than one.”
“You got it. Call me on my cell phone.”
Brad turned his attention to Tara. “Could Doreen be staying at Danny’s house?”
“I suppose she could, but didn’t John’s attorney say she stayed at a hotel during the period they were settling the estate? Surely if there was a time that she would stay with Danny it would have been then. Unless…”
Brad perked up. “Yes? Unless what?”
“Well…unless they were at odds over the inheritance. Maybe Danny thought he should be getting more or possibly Doreen thought he should be getting less. Either way, it could have put them on opposite sides of an issue.”
She paused a moment, then ventured a question that had been forming in the back of her mind. “Does this mean that you think Doreen Vincent is definitely involved in all this? Do you think she and Danny could actually be working together rather than being at odds with each other?”
“It’s certainly beginning to look like a serious possibility. People don’t decide to change their identity and disappear for no reason.” He stared at the computer, slowly shaking his head while trying to organize the myriad thoughts running through his mind. “What I don’t understand is how Doreen could have totally disappeared in the six months since John Vincent’s death. It’s as if she never existed. The timing on this said she must have been planning this prior to her father’s death, possibly even prior to his trial.”
He stared at Tara, his eyes questioning as much as his words. It was as if he was trying to divine some answers from her face. “And if that’s the case, did she make the decision at the time he was arrested predicated on her belief that he would be convicted? And if so, then what did she intend to accomplish by the change of identity? There has to be a motive, something that hasn’t come to light yet. And even more confusing is the running of Green Valley Construction.”
“What’s odd about Green Valley Construction?” A warm feeling settled inside her as he pulled her into his lap, accompanied by a surge of excitement the same way it did every time he touched her. It had only been a few days yet he was the most important person in her life. She tried to separate the concept of the danger surrounding them making him seem larger than life from the reality of what she knew to be true. And each time it came back the same…she wanted to build a life with Brad Harrison. Somehow it had to work out.
Brad took a sip of his coffee. “If she has totally dropped the Doreen Vincent identity in favor of whatever new one she created, then how can she continue to run the business when the person who owns it no longer exists? I haven’t investigated anything having to do with the company. What I need to do is check into Green Valley and see if there’s any record of a change of ownership in the past six months since Doreen inherited.”
Watching his mind work had been a real education for Tara—the way he sorted through little bits of information, extrapolated what seemed significant, then built on that. And very important to her personally was that he was sharing with her, allowing her to know his thoughts, making her a part of the process rather than keeping her at arm’s length. She was actively involved in searching for a solution, not just the cause of the problem.
Then another thought tried to invade her consciousness, one that kept shoving at her no matter how hard she tried to push it away…she had been falling in love with Brad Harrison from the moment he brushed a kiss across her mouth that very first night she stayed in the motel in Tacoma. She tried to deny it when they made love the first time, but to no avail. What she didn’t know was what the future held. A little shiver ran through her body. Or if there even was a future for her—with or without Brad.
She tried to force her thoughts back to the problem at hand. “How can you check on Green Valley’s ownership? It’s not a publicly held company, it’s privately owned.”
“True, but the company is incorporated, so there has to be a filing of corporation papers with the state which lists the officers and which should show any change of ownership. That information should be a matter of public record.”
While Brad did a computer search of corporat
e filings, Tara wandered over to the living-room window and looked outside. It was a beautiful morning, one of those marvelous days when the residents of Seattle and Tacoma could clearly see Mount Rainier with its perpetual snowcap glistening in the sun.
So many thoughts circulated through her mind, each one eliciting a different yet equally strong emotion—the immediate danger surrounding them, what her life would be like if they couldn’t identity and arrest those responsible for the witnesses’ deaths, the seemingly impossible task Brad had taken on by himself, what this was doing to his career and future. It wasn’t fair. He’d been shot trying to protect her. He had possibly thrown away his career trying to protect her. And all she could do in exchange was stand there and stare out a window.
She grabbed her cup of coffee and stepped out onto the large porch. The crisp mountain air filled her lungs with the clean scent of pine. She shielded her eyes against the bright morning light as she surveyed the surroundings. The business section of the village was only about three blocks down the street. A few cars traveled the road, but traffic was light. She watched as a couple of joggers ran along the trail that paralleled the road.
“I don’t think you should be out here.”
She jumped when the hand came down on her shoulder and spun around toward the sound of Brad’s voice. The concern on his face touched her heart. Everything about him touched her heart more than she ever thought possible. “Why not?”
“Someone we don’t recognize could be watching the cabin.” With a gentle nudge, he attempted to guide her toward the door.
She resisted his efforts to move back inside the cabin. “I know, but I can’t stay cooped up forever. And you can’t continue to move me from one hiding place to another every time you think someone might be watching us. If someone is watching the cabin, then they already know we’re here. If no one knows we’re here, then there isn’t anyone watching. It’s that simple.”
In His Safekeeping Page 19